No Posts= High Grades

Yes my friends, I have discovered a relationship with a very high
level of statistical association. Finally squeezed through midterms
and emerged triumphant. Now to just actually start my final projects
and start studying for finals. Ha. I got my midterms returned and
only have three weeks of classes left for the quarter.

I have been cooking quite a bit when I am at home, naturally.
Much of that has been experimental, so no solid recipes unless you
wanna be a tester for the book.

Here are some of the highlights since St. Valentines Day...


Monkey Man's Potato Pierogies



Creamy Fat-Free Basil Pesto


Luscious Vegan Lasagna




Bad lighting, sorry.


Back to making my 'Cutie Quiche', but this time around its all vegan.
At one point I was known for the palooza of quiche I'd make and now
it may happen again.


I love the pie pan that I finally got to use. I actually had not
made any sort of pie since my pie series and my friends had given me
a gorgeous ceramic pie dish that I had not gotten to use yet.

Maybe I'll make them a quiche to say thanks! This one was a whole
wheat crust and stuffed with broccoli and garlic.

All of these were amazing, if I do say so myself and you could taste
absolutely no difference between these and their non-compassionate
counterparts.

I have some great recipes and series coming up soon, so don't fear!

If at first you don't succeed, put it in a pie

succeed
I had the best intentions of making a wonderful pot of smokey
pumpkin soup. I had a container of pumpkin that I had frozen
from Christmas and was intent on using it up.

I made the soup before, but something went horribly wrong.
It tasted pretty bad, but in the way where you can't place
what was wrong. It is supposed to be blended smooth and
flavoured with a wee bit of condensed liquid smoke.
It imparts memories of smokey gouda cheese and oven roasted
pumpkin. Yet for some reason this time it came out tasting
more like smokey feet.

Oh gods! Ok, it wasn't quite that bad. I'm exaggerating.
But we put it aside in hopes of the flavour settling and
it mellowing itself out.

The next evening I cooked up some onions, garlic, carrots,
potatoes, sweet potatoes, and a bit of bell pepper with
some sage... mixed the pumpkin soup in and dumped it in
a pie crust.



For some reason my curse hadn't worn off yet and my
crust came out bready. Not bad, but not flakey.
Oh well. It still tasted damn good.



Pies, or shepherds pies, or even pasties are a great
and delicious way to use up leftover soup.
That's why its an even better idea to have a batch of
pie crust in your freezer for emergencies.
I still have an uncooked pumpkin in the kitchen, now
I need to decide if I'm gonna attempt pumpkin soup again
or if some pumpkin sweets are in order.
Oh well, I'll probably just make curry!

The Pie Saga finally concluded: Raw Fruit Pie

Things finally seem to be falling into place with the internet,

food, the coming Holiday, and our health. Thank goodness.

I promised it so here it is... my first Raw Pie.

No kidding around, I'll voice my comments throughout the

recipe. This is across the board refreshing and guilt-free!!

Raw Apple-Pear Pie

Crust

2 cups almonds, soaked overnight

2 tablespoons mildly flavoured oil

1/4 tsp salt

Blend all together- better yet throw it in a food processor.

Unfortunately, I do not have one. But process it until the almonds

have the consistency of sand. From now on this is how I am going

to use my almond pulp leftover from when I make almond milk.

Make sure to scrape down the sides as you go so it has an even

consistency. Press into

a pie pan evenly and set aside.

Filling

1 gala or fuji apple

2 ripe pears

1 tsp lemon juice to prevent browning

1/4 cup golden raisins, chopped

6-8 dried apricots, chopped

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp allspice

For easier blending , chop the apple and pears and blend

with lemon juice to obtain a chunky apple sauce texture.

Mix in dried fruit and spices.

Pour into prepared crust and serve! Easy as pie.

My only complaint? A little wetter than baked pies.

But the filling is amazingly just like a cooled cooked apple pie!

Sooo tasty.

Emergency Freeform Pie, no lie: Part Six

Sometimes you've gotta do what you've gotta do.

We came home and we were in the mood for food.

After hitting a mall and taking out some hard-core holiday

shoppers we needed some sustenance- but comfort food

is what we were looking at. And since I have two more days

of pie to throw out there...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The pie angels smiled down upon us once more.

They said unto Monkey-man,

"Do-a unto the crust what thou would do unto...

some flour and nondairy butter. Roll it out in a shape

like the sun and almighty creator's bum, but leave the

pan in the past, dear boy."

They spake at me then, beckoning the berries, sugar,

flour, ginger, nutmeg, and earthbalance.

"Mix it thrice more, oh witchy one, and it will taste of

supple sweetness. Add chocolate chips only if thou wishest

to sin in the greatest of ways."

"Oh Pie Angels, why didst thou not instructith me earlier

to relinquish the pan and fold my pies as such?" I bade them.

"Because you idiot," They replied. "You were making custard

and it would have gone all over the place."

And we baked it at 375F for 40 minutes.

And sweet and supple it was....

Cranberry-Chocolate Freeform Pie

1 pie crust recipe, enough for an average 9" pie

2 cups of cranberries or mixed berries

2/3 cup sugar (I did half raw sugar and half maple syrup)

1/2 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp nutmeg

a couple tablespoons vegan chocolate chips

1 tablespoon flour

1 tablespoon of earthbalance

Roll out the pie crust into a circle. Mix all the other ingredients

together, except the earthbalance. Transfer the crust to the

middle of a baking sheet. Dump the filling into the center of the

crust and begin folding the edges up, pinching the dough together.

It is sort of a fan effect and looks very fancy-shamansy.

Although, its super easy once the swearing subsides.

Bake at 375F for about 40 Minutes with the exposed fruit

protected by a piece of foil...

To be used in emergencies only... (a loosely assigned status)

**Note: our crust was a little too thick, so it didn't reach in as

far as it should have, thats why it looks a little wonky.

But you should have a circle opening with about a 6 inch diameter.**

Dinner Pie, Oh My: Part Five

I've heard it said "Eat Dessert first, you never know when

you're gonna die." I strongly concur.

However, what if your dessert was hijacked by a dinner

disguising as a dessert. Like a pie, that wasn't your

average pie...

Yes my friends, I am talking about the dastardly meal

that is shepherds pie or worse yet pot pie. Shepherds pie

though is very often mislabeled... It actually is just a

veg and meat pie topped with potatoes and baked. Pot

pie actually has a pie crust.

I remember my dad making shepherd's pie when I was

a kid and I hated celery, so I never wanted to eat it.

And you have to admit that dinner pie isn't the most

photogenic or appetizing looking meals... So naturally,

as most children do, I had to give it a suitable nickname.

My Dad's shepherd pie became "Shepherd's Hulgh" --

as in a puking noise. I'm not sure how to spell that, but

you get the picture.

I feel pretty bad about this because my Dad is a damn

good cook and he doesn't cook nearly as much as he used

to, very sad. Also, I know that if I had his shepherd's pie today

I wouldn't be complaining.

We did a special take on the whole shepherd's pie idea today

for dinner... Our filling was just a load of mostly broccoli that

could be the base of a very good soup. (onions, garlic, broc,

carrots, sage, rosemary, bay leaf, soymilk, salt, pepper,

and a vegan roux).

Now the crust is what brings us back to the traditional sense

of shepherd's pie-- taders. Instead of lobbing some potatoes on

top we made a potato crust, as follows.

Potato Pie Crust

2 cups mashed potatoes, cooled

2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup olive oil

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp water

Mix all but water. Slowly add water until a ball is formed.

Divide and roll out in to about 1/8" thickness.

This is good for a 9" crust and up. We used an 8" pan and

still had some dough left over. Once the bottom

of the crust is in place, pierce some holes in it with a fork

and prebake for about 8 minutes at 350F.

Pour in your filling and apply the top crust. Cut a couple of

slits in it, so the heat can escape. Bake for 30 minutes or

until golden brown.

My Shepherds "hulgh!"

Hee hee looks like the pie puked though!

Pondering Pie: Part Four

Yesterday I wrote about the two main ways of looking

at fruit pies, cream and custard pies have very much

the same division. You can always look at pies as being

cooked or uncooked. Well, not really uncooked, but more

'precooked'. I'm not even touching on 'raw pie' here, but

I am thinking on doing a post for that...

So custard pies are those that are baked in the end.

Of course the crust may be prebaked briefly before to

ensure

it doesn't get soggy when you add the filling, but it is again

baked after the filling is added. You could call these double-

baked pies. These would be your average custard pies, pumpkin

pies, sweet potatoes pies (maybe), etc.

When I used to consume eggs- we had rescued chickens and

many were separated from the roosters, so we used the

eggs that were not fertilized or my dad sold them to friends...

But I've been off the liquid chicken for sometime now-

I used to make an apple custard pie every full moon.

Green apples line the bottom and a spicy custard is poured

on top and it is baked.

Custard primarily is an egg mixture plus milk, sugar, vanilla

and some spices. So how do we substitute and achieve that

perfect custard smoothness in a twice-baked pie?

I've had excellent luck with silken tofu as an egg sub.

I think it was the main substitute for Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's

sweet potato pie...

For Pumpkin pie, I may add a little tofu to thicken a bit,

but usually I'll just use soymilk and cut back on the liquid

requirements in the recipe. It is really nice to just let the pumpkin or

squash stand alone. The flavour is really amazing.

But I know we all love that creamy texture. Try out tofu-

Silken Firm is the best, it the pack that comes vacuum packaged

and is not refrigerated. It is what I use in one of my favourite

creations, my 'Lover's Accident Pie'. I cannot divulge my entire

recipe to you but I will give you a break down of the tofu custard

that is used.

The Mini Custard

The real sized pie

For a Basic Tofu Custard

1 12-oz package of silken firm tofu

1/2 cup soymilk

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons arrowroot powder

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

a pinch of salt

Blend all ingredients except the arrowroot,

once smooth and creamy add the powder and blend

again. Pour into a pre-baked crust and bake at 375F

for about 40 minutes or until golden brown on top

and it appears to be setting up. Don't worry if it is

a little giggly, it will set up as it cools down a little too.

Now you can add any variety of spices here or use this to

set up a batter for something else. It adapts well into a

cheesecake if you add something to sour it or add more vanilla

to use it as a vegan creme brulee recipe...

Baked and creamy

Topped with cranberry syrup...

The other type of cream pie, which I haven't touched on

get is that which is poured into an entirely pre-baked crust

and chilled to set. The would be like a banana cream pie

or a pudding pie. The crust is baked about 15 minutes or

less depending on what type it is. You can use a graham

cracker crust which is pretty popular for these types of pie.

I don't make these too often because I'm not a huge pudding

person. I do make a really good chocolate pudding, but very

very rarely am I in the mood for it.

I would have pictures because I made one a couple months ago

for my grandparents, but it wasn't worth photographing

because they cut it up before it was entirely set and I didn't

feel like taking a picture of a blob of pudding was worth it.

You get it though: pudding cooked in a pan on the stove and

put into a prebaked crust and chilled= yum.

But definitely try out that vegan custard, its the foundation

for any good custard pie.

Pie Heaven: Part Three

So far we've talked about giving your pie crust a tune up

and exploring new corners of pie-dom, but I wanna jump

over to essentially what the basic principles of certain

pies are. Today... fruit pies.

Fruit pies can be made with a pre-baked crust and a soft

fruit by boiling a syrup separately and pour over the fruit

and cooked crust (berry pies)

or

by primarily making the fruit part of what becomes the

syrup during the baking period. (Apple Pie)

So by mixing the fruit with sugar, when baked the juices

of the fruit combine with the caramelizing sugars and

form a syrup/jam like filling.

I'm not saying this is written in stone and you'll never

find a pie that differs, but in general this is what you

will find and it will make baking pies a bit easier to

analyze.

For Thanksgiving at my Uncles I made a fruit pie

by combining these two techniques, as well as

the different flavours of fall.

Frankly, to me it is not Thanksgiving with out apples

and cranberries. So I mixed it up a little. I really wanted

to make a pie out of pears and put it all together.

As I said before, I combined the basic techniques.

I made a syrup with lime juice, maple syrup, cornstarch,

spices, and orange juice concentrate. I then poured it over

my fruit and allowed it to thicken up.

I filled the crust and baked it at 375F for about 40 minutes.

Honestly we didn't slice the fruit quite thin enough,

but it was quite the hit, despite the crispness. I'm probably

the only one that actually noticed.

Princess of Pies: Part Two

The pie parable continues...

Typically we are confronted by two kinds of pie right?

Custard/Cream Pies and Fruit pies.

Generally it is thought that pumpkin pie and sweet

potato pie fall somewhere in the middle if not make up

their own new category. What say I? Who gives a trixie's butt.

I love the idea of creating pies that no one would expect.

Or creating pies out of whatever you can scrape together.

For the vegan potluck we attended at Rancho Park in LA

on Thanksgiving, I made a winter fruit pie. Originally from

Catt Johnson's Witch in the Kitchen, I veganized it.

It uses a basic pastry crust, but I can imagine something like

a gingersnap or oatmeal crust being really good too.

The filling includes

3 cups of dried fruit (any, chopped)

I used apricots, raisins, golden raisins, and cranberries

2/3 cup vegan rum (white bacardi is good)

1/3 cup turbinado sugar

juice of one lemon or large lime

2 tbsp of earthbalance

1 tsp of vanilla extract

1/2 tsp freshly grated ginger

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp sea salt

Mix all your dried fruit in a bowl, so its evenly distributed.

Heat the alcohol, sugar, juice, earthbalance, and seasonings

over a medium heat until it starts to thicken and bubble.

Add the vanilla and pour over the fruit, stirring to coat well.

Allow to sit about 20 minutes, so the fruit absorbs the syrup

and it can thicken a little. Pour into your prepped crust and

bake for about 20 minutes at 375F.

With the extra bits of crust, I shaped some autumn leaves and

placed them on top. Beautiful!

For more picture in this series checkout my facebook page!

Seven Pies for Seven Brothers: Part One

You may be thinking to yourself why the heck would I be making

so many pies and how in the world do I know seven brothers,

well the answers are simple. First, I like pie. I also would like to

mention that the holidays are here and you all need to refresh

your traditional pie making habits. Seven brothers, no. I just

hijacked the name, but if I end up eating all of these on my

own I will be the size of seven brothers by New Years.

Step One: Revamp or Perfect your crust

Although its been a while since I've even tasted a store bought

pie (blasphemy!) my main complaint at the time is that the crust

either appeared to be made out of tissue paper and paper mache

or rolled out- sugary wall paper paste that absorbed the jelly

filling. Yeah, I've been making my own pies for years and a

damn good crust is something I kind of pride myself on.

Now I don't plan on divulging all my secrets of pie making to you

here and now, but I want to just state some simple things.

Be inventive and match your crust to your pie, it doesn't all

have to be the same basic pastry crust. Here I made a strawberry

pie with a chocolate crust by just adding a couple tablespoons

of sugar and cocoa powder to the mix.

Don't over mix your crust when you're preparing it.

When you add the oil (i.e. Earth Balance, vegetable shortening etc)

keep it in the form of little pea sized bits. They make pastry knife

do hickeys for exactly that purpose... Dough Blenders... I can't

recommend a specific one because I don't actually own one.

But they come in handy and are very easy to find. And if any

company wants to send me one to endorse, I'm certainly open to

that! The act of adding the oil into in the dry ingredients in the fashion

is called 'cutting'. You 'cut' the margarine into the flour. This ensures

a flakey crust, as the bits of oil will melt upon baking-- it will create

layers in your crust.

Do not knead or over mix your dough. We're not making freaking

bread here folks. If you over mix your dough, it will not be flakey.

Or worse, if you start to get into really mixing it you will activate

the gluten in your flour and it will get chewy and tough.

You can start to see this when you roll out cookies or a pie crust

multiple times.

Keep your surface floured lightly and evenly when rolling out.

The thing that pisses me off the most is when after rolling it out,

the crust sticks to the counter.

After rolling it out, trace the pie pan + an inch with a knife into

the crust. Fold it into quarters and place it that way into the pan.

This makes it easier to move and your crust won't tear.

Are you making a wet pie? If there is a lot of juice in the pie you are

making, like a fruit pie that I just did for Thanksgiving, than it is

important to prebake. Prebaking is simple, so don't look at it

as some sort of daunting task. After prepping your crust, just

throw it in the oven for about 8-10 minutes at 350F. This seals

it a little and prevents later sogginess. Another cool trick is

to brush the crust with soymilk before prebaking. Also try

that five minutes to the end of total baking time on the crust's

edge or top to add a beautiful gloss one would only expect with

egg whites!

Pasty Palooza

The all time best way to go through some on-the-edge veg

is by making soup, for sure. But what if instead of adding

all that broth, water, or (non-dairy) milk we kept all our veg

and seasoning ready for something else.

Howsabout some cornish pasties? They are dinner turnovers

to put it simply. Pronounced past-ee, not like pasty when

some is pale beyond belief.

Traditionally I believe they are made with lard (ew barf) and

beef (ew double barf). I made these with tempeh and a bunch

of different vegetables.

I used onion, a couple cloves of garlic, carrots, celery, turnips

(my favorite!!), collard greens, bell peppers and a bunch of

fresh parsley. The 'gravy' is pretty basic. I just start the

vegetables cooking in some oil or earth balance, add a little

bit of broth along the way and then add a few tablespoons of

flour when the vegetables start to look tender. This creates

a kind of basic roux. You can also go crazy with herbs.

Fresh of course is always best, but use what you have.

I like sage and thyme, marjoram is good to... maybe dill...

ROSEMARY.

So then you just plop your 'sloppy soup' into the center

of a rolled out ball of pie crust.

[1 1/3 cup flour, 1/2 cup earthbalance, 1/2 tsp salt, 4 tbsp water]

Fold the dough over and pinch the edges.

This made three very large pasties and we still had a lot

of filling. So leftover soup is a good filling where you

don't have a ton.

Put a couple of slits in the top to let the heat escape and

bake them at 400 for about 40 minutes or until golden.

You can brush the top with oil or soymilk during the last

five minutes of baking if you like to add an extra gleam...

*shiny shiny pasty*

Manic Mondays: Apple Dumplings with Rum sauce

Sometime between breakfast and ending up in the produce aisle

yesterday I had to choose what I was going to make for dessert.

I had a friend over for dinner before Monkey Man's gig. He was

making pizza and I had the assignment of wow-ing with dessert.

I didn't have much time to commit to cooking something, so it

had to be quick, simple and (as usual) absolutely delish.

I knew though when I saw those pretty little gala apples at the market

what dessert was going to consist of. Whenever I go camping I do baked

apples, stuffing them with just some sugar, raisins and cinnamon.

But last night I made full blown dumplin's.

Don't know how much wow-ing went

on in the rest of the room, but my taste buds were pretty happy.

I believe my taste buds where dancing to a punk rock version of 'what a

wonderful world'...

I started with a sweetened pie crust recipe- cut in half because there

was only three of us.

Crust

2/3 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup earth balance

1/4 tsp salt

1 tablespoon raw sugar

enough ice water to form a ball with the dough- about 2 tablespoons.

Cut the earth balance in to the dry ingredients, forming little pea

sized balls. This makes the crust flake, so don't knead it at all.

Add the water and split into three balls (?) Two if you want

a thicker crust. Roll these balls out and cut into squares.

The Apples

Core the apples, removing all the tough bits inside.

The filling

mix together a couple tablespoons of raisins and sugar

add about a 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and couple tbsp of rolled oats.

I also added abut a tablespoon of sun flower seeds, but you can

use walnuts, pecans, or whatever blows your skirt up.

Place the cored apples on the center of rolled out crust.

Pack a third of the filling into the center of the apple.

Pull the corners of the crust up to meet the opposite corners

like a little package.

Stick em in the oven at 375-400 for about twenty minutes

or until the crust begins to turn golden brown.

To be honest I wasn't really watching the time or heat.

So don't worry too much. If your crust is cooked, your apple will

most likely be tender. Just don't put it right under the pilot light.

While this is all in the over or just ready to come out, start on your

rum sauce... which is comprised of .... soymilk... earth balance... sugar...

cornstarch or arrow root powder and rum. Dark or light rum is fine.

I used light, but dark would be just as tasty.

So melt a tablespoon of earth balance and 1/4 cup of sugar over med heat.

Dissolve 2 tsp of cornstarch in 1/2 cup of soymilk, making sure to avoid

lumping. Cook until just starts to thicken and remove from heat.

Add 3 tablespoons of rum and use immediately. That means pour

it over those hot apples!